Crab Bucket
Crab Bucket Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 32 crab cards (numbered 1 to 8, in red, green, blue and yellow).
- 5 Oxi! cards.
- 18 Mission cards.
Setup
- Set aside 1 Oxi! card for each player (for example: 3 players, 3 Oxi! cards). If there are extra Oxi! cards, return them to the game box, since they will not be used in this game.
- Shuffle the crab deck and deal 8 crab cards to form a circle (see the illustration in the source), and deal 3 crab cards to each player.
- Then shuffle the Oxi! cards back into the crab deck.
- Separate the Mission cards into 3 piles (level 1, level 2, and level 3) and shuffle each pile.
- Take the top card from any Mission pile and place it in the centre of the crab circle. For the first game, or for the Quick Mode, use a level 1 Mission.
Game Modes
There are two game modes: Quick Mode (Modo Ligeiro) and Wild Crab Mode (Modo Caranguejo Selvagem). Each topic of the manual explains how the two modes differ.
1. Quick Mode (Modo Ligeiro)
Recommended for new players.
Objective: The players must complete 3 Missions to win the game: one of level 1, one of level 2, and one of level 3. The players win as soon as Mission 3 is completed, but they lose the game if the cards in their hands run out before they complete the 3 Missions.
Communication between players: The players may communicate freely during the first Mission, but there may be no communication from the second Mission onward.
Note: Depending on the game mode, the Oxi! card has different functions (explained below).
2. Wild Crab Mode (Modo Caranguejo Selvagem)
This is the ideal mode for people who have already played Crab Bucket a few times, because it offers a more strategic mode with a longer duration.
Objective: The players must complete as many Missions as possible before the players' cards run out. Each completed Mission card scores points equal to the level of the Mission (for example, a level 2 Mission scores 2 points), provided that all of its requirements are met. The final goal is to reach the highest possible level. See the table of levels at the end of this manual.
Communication between players: No communication of any kind is allowed.
Note: Depending on the game mode, the Oxi! card has different functions (explained below).
Mission Cards and How to Complete Them
To complete a Mission and score in the game, you must understand the order in which the crab cards need to be in the circle. Each crab card must be placed on top of any crab pile. (Translator's note: this sentence is split across a panel break in the printed manual; its connecting words are rendered from the surrounding text.) From then on, any card may be placed on top of the Oxi! card.
A Mission has 4 requirements that must be met at the same time. For example, in the illustration that follows, the Mission requires that:
- Between 2 Green cards, there must be 2 cards of any colour.
- Between 2 Red cards, there must be 3 cards of any colour.
- Between 2 Blue cards, there must be 0 cards.
- Between 2 Yellow cards, there must be 1 card of any colour.
In other words, the players must cooperate, with restricted communication (as explained earlier), until they meet the Mission's requirements, as demonstrated below.
(Illustration in the source: the crab circle with the four requirement examples — "Between 2 green cards there are 2 cards", "Between 2 red cards there are 3 cards", "Between 2 yellow cards there is only 1 card", "Between 2 blue cards there are no cards".)
Missions of Level 2 and 3
In these Missions, some requirements have numbers greater than 3. In practice the effect is the same: there must be that number of cards between two cards of that colour.
Another change is that an icon of an "X" or of a "Chain" (Corrente) appears, meaning:
- For an "X", the colours linked by the X MUST NOT be adjacent.
- For a "Chain" (Corrente), the colours linked by it MUST have AT LEAST ONE link between two cards of those colours.
(Illustration in the source: two example Mission cards, one with an X icon showing 0 and 5, and one with a Chain icon showing 0 and 3.)
How to Play
The last player to have visited a beach is the first player. Going clockwise from the first player, each player on their turn must perform one of the main actions described below, and then draw a card, so that they again have 3 cards in hand.
(Note: in the rare case that a player cannot perform any action, that player may pass the turn.)
1. Play a Crab Card
The options the player has, depending on the cards in their hand and on the table, are:
Play a card from your hand onto any of the crab piles present in the circle, following this rule:
- Card of the SAME COLOUR: it can only be played if your card is HIGHER than the card on the table.
- Card of a DIFFERENT COLOUR: it can only be played if your card is LOWER OR EQUAL to the card on the table.
Example: in the illustration in the source, the first player has 3 cards. (The example illustration is not reproduced here.)
Specific cards:
- Green "2": may be placed on any card that is not green, because all green cards on the table are higher than 2, and cards of other colours are higher than or equal to 2.
- Red "5": may be placed on the green "7", the green "8", or the yellow "6", since 5 is lower than those numbers. It may NOT be placed on the red "7", because 7 is higher than 5 and both cards are red.
- Yellow "7": may be placed on the red 7, the green 7, or the green 8, because it is lower than or equal to them; it may also be placed on the yellow "4" and yellow "6", because it is higher and of the same colour as them.
2. Play an Oxi! Card
In this case, depending on the game mode, the Oxi! card has different functions:
- Quick Mode: the Oxi! card may be played onto any crab pile. From then on, any card may be placed on top of the Oxi! card.
- Wild Crab Mode: the Oxi! card is discarded. The player who played it chooses one of the 8 crab piles and keeps only the card on the top of that pile, and then shuffles the rest back into the draw pile. This helps prolong the game, to be used at strategic moments, to reach higher scores.
3. Use a Mission's Ability (Optional)
If a Mission has already been completed earlier, the player may use the ability of one of the Mission cards. Then turn that card face down. It still counts as points (in Wild Crab Mode), but its ability can no longer be used.
See the full list of each Mission's abilities at the end of the rulebook.
End of Game
When a player needs to draw a card from the draw pile and there are no cards left, all players play on until they run out of cards in hand, without drawing new cards, and the game ends. (If playing Wild Crab Mode, see the levels table below.)
If playing Quick Mode, the game also ends when the players complete the third Mission (level 3): in that case the players win the game!
Levels Table for Wild Crab Mode
- Up to 4 points = Apprentice Crab Catcher (Aprendiz de Catador)
- 6 to 9 points = Crab Shell Grabber (Pegador de Casqueiro)
- 10 to 15 points = Guardian of the Mangrove (Guardião do Mangue)
- 16 to 19 points = King of the Mangrove Swamp (Rei do Manguezal)
- 20 points or more = Oxi! (Oxi!)
Translator's note: the printed table gives no entry for exactly 5 points (it jumps from "up to 4" to "6 to 9"). It is transcribed as printed; the source does not say how a score of 5 is classed.
Mission Abilities (Completed Missions)
Once completed (regardless of mode), a Mission is separated from the other cards and becomes a single-use ability. After using it, turn it face down to show that it has already been activated.
Level 1
- Rescue up to 3 cards from the top: choose up to 3 crab piles, take the top cards of those piles, and shuffle them back into the crab deck.
- Swap two top cards of position: choose 2 piles, and swap only the top card of those piles with each other.
- Rescue an Oxi! card: find an Oxi! card that has already been played (from one of the piles in Quick Mode, or already discarded in Wild Crab Mode), and use it immediately.
Level 2
- Play a card freely: play a card from your hand onto one of the 8 crab piles without worrying about which card is on top of the pile.
- Swap a card from your hand for one from the top: take the top card of one of the 8 crab piles and swap it for any card from your hand.
- Draw 1 card and play 2: draw a card from the deck and play 2 cards on your turn.
Level 3
Cards discarded are removed from the game and cannot be used again until the end of the game.
- Discard 1 crab pile: choose one whole crab pile and discard it. This space is then free to place any other card.
- Discard the top card of all piles: discard 1 card from the top of ALL crab piles.
- Discard the Mission, draw 2 choose 1: remove the current Mission card from the game, draw 2 Mission cards of any kind, and use one of them as the current Mission.